By Zach Vasile

The Texas Supreme Court on Friday cleared the way for the union representing Southwest pilots to continue its lawsuit against Boeing over the company’s alleged misrepresentation of the 737 MAX before a pair of crashes killed a combined 346 people.

The court determined that the federal Railway Labor Act does not preempt the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association (SWAPA) from bringing claims against the aircraft manufacturer on behalf of its members.

Boeing argued in both state and federal court that the Railway Labor Act prevented what it called an unlawful interpretation of the union’s collective bargaining agreement. It also said SWAPA lacked “associational standing” to bring the case.

The court rejected those points but did not rule on the merits of the union’s complaint.

“We conclude that the Act does not preempt the claims and that  SWAPA  has standing to assert the claims of its members who assigned their claims to  SWAPA,” Justice Jeffrey S. Boyd wrote in a 7-2 decision. “We  do  not  address whether  those  individual  claims  can  or must  be  joined,  consolidated, severed,  or  set  for  separate  trials,  as  those  issues  are  not currently before us.”

The case was remanded to a Texas trial court.

SWAPA sued Boeing in October 2019 after the crash of Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 forced the company to ground the aircraft worldwide.

The organization said its pilots were falsely induced to fly the aircraft based on promises from Boeing that it was essentially a more fuel-efficient version of the old 737 and would not require any additional training to operate.

This guidance meant pilots were not familiar with the airplane stabilization system believed to have forced both crashed flights into a nose down position that pilots could not override.

“SWAPA pilots agreed to fly the 737 MAX aircraft based on Boeing’s representations that it was airworthy and essentially the same as the timetested 737 aircraft that its pilots have flown for years,” the union said at the time.

“These representations were false. Boeing’s errors cost the lives of 346 people, damaged the critical bond between pilots and passengers, and reduced opportunities for air travel across the United States and around the world.”

As a result of the groundings, about 30,000 scheduled Southwest flights were eliminated, costing the airline’s pilots “in excess of $100 million” in lost compensation.

SWAPA, which has its headquarters in Dallas, represents over 11,000 Southwest pilots.

The SWAPA case is one of many legal challenges Boeing has faced since the 737 MAX crashes. The aviation giant has already paid billions in fines, settlements, and compensation related to the crashes and grounding of the aircraft, which was allowed to return to service in late 2020 after safety modifications.